Are You One Of Those Geeks ...
- Thread starter gillsev
- Start date
markshan
Sir Thrift a Lot
You haven't heard one of my LP rips.
Fopp
Scientist
There is way too much mp3 hating on this forum.
Look, I know what sounds good (my system) and I know what sounds really good (I've heard systems costing over $50,000, in properly set up rooms). 99% of the time I listen to vinyl in my room. But there have been times where I only had the music on mp3 (320kbps). I'm thinking of one album in particular, Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise. It sounded magnificent.
I play my iPod all the time using my SR80s, magnificent.
mp3s sound good. And even if FLAC sounds better, I simply cannot understand how someone could listen to a high bitrate mp3 and say it sounds horrible.
Look, I know what sounds good (my system) and I know what sounds really good (I've heard systems costing over $50,000, in properly set up rooms). 99% of the time I listen to vinyl in my room. But there have been times where I only had the music on mp3 (320kbps). I'm thinking of one album in particular, Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise. It sounded magnificent.
I play my iPod all the time using my SR80s, magnificent.
mp3s sound good. And even if FLAC sounds better, I simply cannot understand how someone could listen to a high bitrate mp3 and say it sounds horrible.
davidro
Lunatic Member
I convert LPs for sharing the music with those who do not have turntables. For my own uses I stick with my turntable. When I listen to music digital then I'd just listen to CDs.
BTW, some of us seem to think a lot of music is not accessible on mediums other than LPs. Well time has elapsed a lot since Sony introduced CD players and nowadays a lot of music is NOT available on LPs, too, which is why I also purchase CDs.
BTW, some of us seem to think a lot of music is not accessible on mediums other than LPs. Well time has elapsed a lot since Sony introduced CD players and nowadays a lot of music is NOT available on LPs, too, which is why I also purchase CDs.
libertycaps
Analogue "AAA" vinyl.
mp3 files are great fun for making cdr comps, etc., but i'd consider ripping my lp's to mp3 a supreme waste of my time.
By the way: Both analog & digital playback mediums suffer from compression.
By the way: Both analog & digital playback mediums suffer from compression.
zenith2134
Lunatic Member
In today's world of cheap digital storage costs, there is simply no reason to convert your vinyl to a lossy format. MP3, even at 320kbps CBR is still considered lossy.
I recently purchased a 2TB external drive for my Mac and transferred some LPs using Audacity--24 bit 96kHz ... yes the files are large but who cares? I'm not sharing them on the internet nor am I attempting to squeeze them all into an iPod with small HDD space.
Digital isn't really the enemy, IMO, but some people need to wake up and realize that there isn't much reason to compress the hell out of the tracks anymore...
I recently purchased a 2TB external drive for my Mac and transferred some LPs using Audacity--24 bit 96kHz ... yes the files are large but who cares? I'm not sharing them on the internet nor am I attempting to squeeze them all into an iPod with small HDD space.
Digital isn't really the enemy, IMO, but some people need to wake up and realize that there isn't much reason to compress the hell out of the tracks anymore...
DougMac
Super Member
Storage
I used to have a cassette Walkman. It's crazy that now I carry a Zen, which is smaller than the Walkman and it contains way more than the big cases of cassettes I used to have. Furthermore, the sound quality is far superior.
My Zen has a 60gig hard drive. I don't feel the need to compress.
I used to have a cassette Walkman. It's crazy that now I carry a Zen, which is smaller than the Walkman and it contains way more than the big cases of cassettes I used to have. Furthermore, the sound quality is far superior.
PickyEars81
Super Member
Well, I filled up an 80GB iPod w/ 320k mp3s and that was only a fraction of my collection. I upgraded to a 160GB but even still, I will fill it up eventually. So for the portability of it, yes there is value in compression. For your "master" copies, I agree, buy a 2TB drive and use high rate samples. Then convert down to MP3 from there, if you want to get more tracks on a portable player.
AnalogDigit
Realistic fan.
I transfer cassettes and vinyl to MP3 format for my friends. Sound pretty good. I don't own a MP3 player, I listen to music by playing cassettes, vinyl, open reel (got my Akai GX4000D fixed) and FM.
I really do not like listening to an MP3 player when I'm bike riding or walking. I have to hear things around me for safety reasons.
I really do not like listening to an MP3 player when I'm bike riding or walking. I have to hear things around me for safety reasons.
tonybelding
New Member
I am one of those geeks, I guess.
My music collection is on the hard drive of my iMac, in my iTunes Library. That's where it lives, and that's where it has lived for quite a number of years now since I first discovered iTunes and mass-ripped my CDs into it. Then the CDs went out into the garage, into storage. These days I'm ripping to 256K AAC (i.e. MP4, i.e. M4A), which is the same thing ITMS now sells.
I just recently got a turntable, after quite a few years without one. It's the best turntable I ever had, and I dig the "ritual" you guys talk about. The big cover art, gatefolds, committing to listening to an album side clean through, it's cool. Yep. . . I find it encourages me to focus on the music and appreciate it, much more than just randomly flipping through shuffle tracks on the iPod.
However. . .
I''ve got a RolandED UAE-30 USB Audio Interface plugged into the tape loop on my receiver, and the UAE-30 is connected to a Macbook Air which is usually perched on top my left speaker. I can sample a record to the Mac, then shoot it wirelessly over to my main iMac, load it into Amadeus Pro and cut it into tracks, normalize them and clean up the rice crispies, and put them into my iTunes Library.
When I want to hear one, the iMac acts as the server and streams the tunes wirelessly back to my Roku Soundbridge M2000, and back into the stereo. So. . . If I want to put the vinyl on the turntable, I can do that, but if I want to stream it just like any of my CDs, I can do that too. They also get synced into my iPod, of course.
My music collection is on the hard drive of my iMac, in my iTunes Library. That's where it lives, and that's where it has lived for quite a number of years now since I first discovered iTunes and mass-ripped my CDs into it. Then the CDs went out into the garage, into storage. These days I'm ripping to 256K AAC (i.e. MP4, i.e. M4A), which is the same thing ITMS now sells.
I just recently got a turntable, after quite a few years without one. It's the best turntable I ever had, and I dig the "ritual" you guys talk about. The big cover art, gatefolds, committing to listening to an album side clean through, it's cool. Yep. . . I find it encourages me to focus on the music and appreciate it, much more than just randomly flipping through shuffle tracks on the iPod.
However. . .
I''ve got a RolandED UAE-30 USB Audio Interface plugged into the tape loop on my receiver, and the UAE-30 is connected to a Macbook Air which is usually perched on top my left speaker. I can sample a record to the Mac, then shoot it wirelessly over to my main iMac, load it into Amadeus Pro and cut it into tracks, normalize them and clean up the rice crispies, and put them into my iTunes Library.
When I want to hear one, the iMac acts as the server and streams the tunes wirelessly back to my Roku Soundbridge M2000, and back into the stereo. So. . . If I want to put the vinyl on the turntable, I can do that, but if I want to stream it just like any of my CDs, I can do that too. They also get synced into my iPod, of course.
tonybelding
New Member
Reason 1: My car stereo won't play Apple Lossless format, but it does AAC.
Reason 2: I'm still fitting my whole music collection into my iPod Classic.
Reason 3: I struggled to hear the difference between 160kbps AAC and CD audio. I doubt whether I'd ever be able to distinguish 256kbps AAC from CD.
